How to Decorate a Mardi Gras Party

No Mardi Gras party is complete without decorations. To get your guests into the spirit of the season, plan well in advance so your home becomes a recreation of a New Orleans street. Think colors and over-the-top decorations, loud music and lots of food and drinks. Mardi Gras is a time of craziness and excesses, and while you want to keep the party safe, you also want to make it a time to remember.

Things You'll Need

• Craft supplies
• Bulbs
• Confetti
• Mardi Gras characters
• Scented candles
• Posters
• Streamers
• Balloons
• Banners

Instructions

Transform Your House

1. Buy decorations in "official" Mardi Gras colors: green, purple and gold. If you don't mind the after-party cleaning, get confetti and streamers. Otherwise, stick to balloons, posters, banners and other paper decorations.

2. Get beads. No Mardi Gras celebration is complete without guests wearing beads. Either give them to the guests as they walk in or organize a competition during which people can battle for the most beads. At the end of the party, give a special treat to the guest who collected the most.

3. Use beads to decorate for the party. Hang them from ceiling fans or across lamps. Use them on the table among the plates and serving dishes.

4. Forget traditional party music. Stick to New Orleans brass bands, such as Dirty Dozen Brass Band, or go with music from New Orleans musicians, including Kim Carson and Joe Stafford.

5. Encourage guests to wear a costume or make it mandatory by throwing a costume party. Provide masks to guests as they walk in or buy craft supplies and white paper masks so guests can decorate their own.

6. Buy "Happy Mardi Gras" banners or make your own on craft paper. Hang them in every room in which guests will congregate.

7. Decorate the room with some of the traditional Mardi Gras characters, such as the jester. Add dragons, fairies and other fantasy creatures to the mix.

8. Change the light bulbs. Instead of white bulbs, use red or green to provide a sense of ambiance.

9. Make your bathroom a part of the party theme with scented candles in the colors of Mardi Gras. Light them up before the party.

Tips & Warnings

• Instead of spending money on Mardi Gras-themed party supplies (which can be rather expensive and hard to find), decorate by choosing items in the holiday's colors and making your own decorations. Green, purple and gold are Mardi Gras colors.

• Avoid buying expensive or fragile decorations. Mardi Gras usually involves lots of alcohol and the last thing you want is to worry all night about the fate of your pricey items.